2S4 



Tlie Curcuiio ; 



esnsb 



and you will notice Ihat the larva has burrowed down 



into it. 



The effect, upon the phiin 

 or other fruit, of the larva with- 

 in, is to cause it to shrivel and 

 decay, and after a while it falls. 

 By tlie time the plum falls, the 

 insect has nearly or quite com ■ 

 pleted his larva or grub stage, 

 and then he leaves it and goes 

 down a little way into the earth. 

 Here in the earth he under- 

 goes his transformation, {,fig- 

 25,) which is performed in about 



ShotDing the blue line, which, indicaies fifteen OT twenty dayS, in the 

 that the grub is eatinff within, ^^^j^^,^ ^f j^^^g ^^ f^^^.^ p^j^j ^f 



July. But all the larva3, (so far as I have observed,) that 

 go into the earth about as late as the 20th of July, do not as- 

 .,- cend that season, but 



remain there in the 

 pupa stage {fg- 26,) 

 until the next spring. 

 We are to observe 



LarccE of the Curcuiio of the natural size. tllCU that there are 



two generations in one season, of these insects, and this 



fact it is important to know; for if the first generation 



2g in the larva and beetle stages is destroyed, 



we have little to fear from the second, 



which operates in July. 



The kinds of fruit, and the only kinds, 

 which the Curcuiio injures, as far as 1 

 have observed, are the phmi, apricot, nec- 

 tarine, peach, cherry and apple, and these 

 in the order in which he seems to prefer 

 them. But I would remark, that he is not the only insect 

 which makes the apple wormy. The codling moth does 

 great injury to the apple crop, and the caterpillar of this 

 moth should not be mistaken for the larva of the Cur- 

 cuiio. 



The Curcuiio does not usually injure the cherry crop ex- 

 cessively, but it is remarkable what a cause of general de- 

 vastation he proves to the plum crop, when he is suffered 

 to go on in his work unmolested. 'I'he writer has known 

 large plum trees, loaded with fruit, in the early part of 



Curcuiio in the pupa 

 stage magnified. 



T have placed 



